The Price to Pay
by Droiture LeReve
Summary: Link brings Japas to the site of Mikau's grave to mourn their loss. Zora!LinkXJapas


Note: This is the first fanfiction I've ever written using Microsoft Word or any other word document program other than the most generic program that came bundled with my old Macbook. This is my new computer, an Asus Triple-E Netbook, a little 10.1 inch PC netbook with Windows 7 installed. My old computer, which now belongs to my mother, was a 15-inch Macbook with MacOS -or-other on it. So I'm sorry if the formatting of this is all off, I'm really bad at PC usage. Plus even when I did use a PC at school and such, I usually used Microsoft Word 2003, and now I'm using the 2007 version which is throwing me all off, man.

I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did, I wouldn't need to write crappy internet fanfiction, now would I?

One more warning before we begin: I'm using specific slang from my area, so if there's any part of Japas' speech pattern you don't understand feel free to ask. Also, Link's speech pattern is a bit formal. I personally talk this way and reflected my own speech pattern in Link. Sorry.

**The Price to Pay**

Japas hung his head as he stared at the monument on the shoreline. He turned his head to the left to stare at the young pointy-eared human kid with the piercing blue eyes standing next to him.

"Hey, for what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to do what I did. It was the only way to save everyone." The kid said.

"Yeah. I get it. You did what you had to do to save everyone. I know, brah. It's just…" Japas trailed off.

"I know. You're hurt that I lied… that I impersonated your best friend."

"Nah, man. I get it. We're chill. I'm not rashin' at you or anything like that, brah. Yeah… I'm a little salted that I didn't know he was gone… but it ain't your fault. You weren't the one who…"

"If it makes you feel better I defeated the Gerudo thieves who did it."

"A bit. But why him? What made that happen?"

"When I first got to Great Bay, I saw him floating by the shore. He was unconscious and dying. Bleeding everywhere. He was suffering. I brought him to shore and played my ocarina… I just wanted to make him feel better. I played the Song of Healing. It has the power to heal someone's spirit… just not their body. I wasn't fast enough. I erected this monument so he wouldn't be forgotten, then took the mask left behind. The mask turned me into Mikau. I'm really sorry I was too late. I know I'm not the greatest hero."

"Don't say that dude. You saved Termina, what more can a dude ask for? I'm alive, and as selfish as it sounds, I'm grateful for at least that. I know I'm not really the brightest guy, but I give credit where credit's due." Japas said.

Link smiled. "He said that too, before he died."

Japas coughed in an attempt to cover his crying. "Y-You're just a kid… you couldn't possibly understand—"

"How much he loved you? I may be young, but I'm not blind, and I'm not an idiot either. Back in Hyrule, I lived seven years and then went back again. Physically I'm only twelve, but mentally I'm an adult. It's hard to explain, but I've got more world knowledge in my mind than my eyes have actually seen."

Japas dropped to his knees and the bass guitar he was leaning on fell over and made a dull _thunk _in the sand. He put his webbed hand out to touch his best friend's guitar. Link looked over at him.

"I… I've still got the mask, if you want it. As a memento. I don't know if it'll do you any good, but…"

Link held out the cold ceramic. Japas touched it, but didn't take it.

"I hate to ask, dude… Could you… just one last time?" Japas asked, pushing gently on the mask to put it back in Link's hands.

"Sure." Link put on the mask, and Japas watched in wonder as his body grew and twisted until he was the spitting image of Mikau.

Link, in his new form, shuddered, popped his elbows and shoulders, blinked a couple times and coughed. "I'm still not used to the transformation process very well." He admitted in Mikau's rough voice.

Japas said nothing, merely staring at Link and biting his lip.

"If you look close, I'm not exactly him…" Link said, trying to be comforting.

Japas nodded wildly, as if trying desperately to believe it. The more he looked, the more he realized Link was right. Most of Mikau's tattoos were absent, and also the facial structure was a bit sharper and more human-like.

"Yeah…" Japas choked. "I-I'm sorry, dude… I'm just rashin' for no reason."

Link stepped closer, and put his webbed, gloved hands on Japas' shoulders. "Look at me, it's okay. You don't have to hold it in. It's alright. Go ahead and cry. Grieving is natural."

"I was the cool one, dude. The one who never got salted, never forced it… I was just chillin', brah! I've never cried, brah!"

"It's okay. There's a first for everything, and you can trust me."

"Goddesses I'm so forcin' it right now."

"Come here." Link said, holding his arms out.

Japas tottered over, almost stumbling his way into Link's embrace. He burst out in tears.

"It's okay, shhhh, I'm here." Link said softly, holding the shorter Zora in his arms.

"He's dead! Why did this happen?" Japas screamed into Link's blue scaly chest.

"The Goddesses work in mysterious ways, Japas. Whatever their reason for taking Mikau away was, we may never know. But nothing is random. This had a purpose, remember that."

"Goddesses…. It's rough to remember you're just a kid." Japas said, backing away a bit, wiping his eyes with his fins.

"It's also rough to remember I'm not really just a kid. I'm nineteen, and I've seen some wild things happen. I was torn from my home at twelve only to find out the life I'd been living was a total farce and I wasn't what I thought I was at all. My best friends were taken from me, and I was powerless to save them until it was too late. But as painful as it was to watch them die, and to know… I stayed strong, because really, if you think about it, you don't know how strong you are until being strong is the only option you have left. I put a pious smile on my face and kept going, because there was an entire nation on my shoulders." Link himself began to cry. "I was twelve! No twelve year old should have been forced to kill like that…" Link took off the Zora Mask, and laid it at Japas' feet. "So no, I'm really not 'just a kid'. And nothing happens at random."

"Whoa… salted." Japas said. "Heated."

Link's mouth twitched a bit; he couldn't quite figure out how to respond. Japas' speech pattern contained slang he wasn't familiar with.

Japas picked the mask up. He looked at it carefully.

"I've slain dragons, rescued princesses, and done the dashing hero thing, but nothing was harder for me to live through than losing my only childhood friend. I worked so hard to save her, only for her to be taken away again. She's not dead, but I'll never see her again… and that's just as bad in my opinion." Link said.

"I feel like I'm forcin' it right now. I don't want to, but you were talkin' and I just kept thinkin' 'yeah yeah but what about Mikau? Why'd HE have to die?'" Japas said.

"I know. It's hard to lose the only real friend you ever had."

Japas sighed deeply. "We were more than that, brah. We were… ballin'. We were…happy." The Zora said.

Link nodded. "You were in love."

"No one knew. Mikau married Lulu and they had a whole buncha baby Mikaus, just to keep everyone happy and stuff. No one knew."

"But you knew, and Mikau knew, and you're the only ones who mattered."

"Oh man, what am I gonna tell Lulu? She's got seven kids to take care of by herself now-"

"Calm down." Link didn't say anything more. He didn't need to. Instead, he put the Zora Mask back on, changing himself once again into Mikau. "I don't have a home here. Or one in Hyrule anymore, for that matter. I'm not a Kokiri, so they won't let me live among them anymore, despite my deeds. It simply goes against all their laws. And these magical masks I've been using wouldn't work there. The air isn't the same. Believe me, the air here is magical. Something in the Hyrulean air is… dull. I couldn't live anywhere there anymore."

"So… you're gonna stay?"

"Like you said. Lulu has seven children. Why would I leave her to take care of seven children by herself? I can still play guitar, and no one seems to be able to tell the difference."

"I'd know the difference, brah… it almost kills me when I look at you right now."

"I know, it's deceitful but I don't have a home anymore. Why wouldn't I come live amongst the Zoras? Frankly, I liked the power from this mask best. Electrified arm fins? Yes, please."

"Dude, you can electrify your fins? Lucky prick." Japas snapped half-jokingly.

Link laughed in Mikau's voice, a sound that almost brought the bassist to tears. "Mikau had a particular connection with the spirit world. When I wear this mask, his power gets transferred to me in the form of magical abilities that Zoras don't normally have, like the ability to electrify my body underwater and shoot my fins like boomerangs."

"That's wild, brah. Doesn't that hurt?"

"At first it did, a little, but now I'm used to it. Just imagine someone tugging on your fins a bit and then pushing them back in. At first it seems like it would hurt but it kind of feels good now."

"Show it off, brah. Come on!"

Link laughed again, then gently moved Japas to the side. He shot his fins out in front of him with a battle shout, and did a backflip when they came back to show off. He then shielded himself with the fin and shot magical energy through his body, causing him to glow a bright blue. He stood back up, shaking off the last bits of energy.

"That's so crazy, brah." Japas laughed. "Well, look. I don't like it. But Lulu can't raise the kids alone and still be in the band. Poor girl would never sleep. So I'll take you back and let you be Mikau, but it's gonna kill me, brah."

"Don't let it. Come here." Japas trotted over.

Link smiled and kissed his forehead. "You're a great guy Japas. You did a lot for me. Why do you think you were the one I chose to bring here? I could have brought Lulu and the kids, you know. But I didn't. I knew how much you and Mikau loved each other and chose to bring you here instead. When I inherited Mikau's powers, I also got his memories."

Japas looked stunned, but managed to pull Link into a bruising kiss. "Dude… you're not Mikau. I might seem like the most selfish prick on the planet, but I'm willing to take the next best thing if it helps me get through this. I loved Mikau. _Loved _him, brah. He made me feel like I was somebody. Without him I'm nobody. You say you got his memories, so you remember everything."

"Everything." Link said softly. "And when I look at you, those memories come crashing back into me like a tempest wave on my mind. I never lived through those events, but I remember them as if I had. With those memories come the emotions attached to them. Admiration, adoration, friendship, brotherhood, and love. I know I'm not Mikau. I could never truly be Mikau. Deep, deep down inside, I'll always be Link. But I'm close enough."

"I guess that's just the price I gotta pay for getting him back, brah." Japas said.

"It is a heavy burden to bear, and I'm sorry that you have to bear it at all."

"I feel like a jerk! All those years with him, and I just go for a… cheap imposter, brah. Err, no forcin', brah."

Link shook his long, blue head. "No offense taken." Link took one last soulful look at the guitarist's monument, complete with a plaque that Link himself carved in Hylian. "Shall we go?"

Japas shrugged. "I guess, brah. It still feels cheap."

"Sadly, Japas, I'm afraid that feeling may never go away. But hopefully I can help to lessen the sorrow, even a little." Link leaned in and pressed his slick scaly lips to Japas' lips once again. Japas kissed back desperately for a few moments, then pulled back suddenly.

"Your lips… they ain't Mikau's, brah."

"What do you mean?"

"They look like Mikau's, and they're like, the same, but they don't feel the same."

"Well, I keep some human characteristics when I take on Zora form. It's not an absolute transformation."

"Nah, brah. It ain't that. The transformation or whatever was fine, brah. It's like… you're too… I dunno, soft or somethin'."

Link looked perplexed. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Mikau was a badass, brah. He was the big cheese. Kiss more like a big cheese."

"I'm still not quite sure what you're talking about, but I'll try." Link leaned in again, and captured Japas' lips with what he hoped was more of a 'big cheese' flair. Japas seemed to respond positively, grasping Link's shoulders with tight webbed fingers and gills flaring to filter oxygen.

When the two Zoras parted, Japas was a little shell-shocked.

"You okay?" Link asked in concern.

"Yeah, brah… that was fine. Great! You uh… yeah." Japas swayed on his feet a little.

"I apologize if I've frightened you." Link said, tilting his head and looking at Japas with wide Zoran eyes.

"Nah, brah… Not scared… just uh… what's that word for that thing where you feel like you've done it before?"

"_Déjà vu?" _Link offered.

"Nah, not that one… the one where you're remembering. Like, uhh…. It begins with an 'n', brah."

"Nostalgia?"

"Yeah! That's it! That one. I feel that."

"Well good, it means I've done a good job. Come on, let's go."

Japas nodded and headed back towards the open water. He looked back. "You comin', brah?"

"Yeah, I'll be behind you. Gimme just a minute, okay? You go on ahead."

Japas shrugged and headed back towards the Zoran capital. Link watched him dive into the ocean and swim away. Link turned on his heel and stared at the monument in front of him. He took a deep breath, using both his human lungs and Zoran gills.

"Look, Mikau," he started, praying upwards at the bright blue sky, and to the crude grave in front of him, "I'm sorry. I don't want to steal your life. Your identity. I don't want this. But the truth is, I really don't have much of a choice.

"Your people, your children, and your lover needs me. I want it to be you. Goddesses, how I want it to be you. I only can wish that you somehow rise from the dead and take everything back. Take back your life. Take back your world. Take back your children, your wife, your lover, your guitar, and your face. Take back everything I've stolen from you in the name of some aimless 'good'. What good came of this? I stole everything from you, Mikau. Everything. I took your name, your face, and even the man you loved so much.

" I've taken things that don't belong to me, and I feel like the lowest scum of the earth. I feel like the scum that regular scum looks at and shuns. I've abandoned my home, my friends, and the only family I ever knew, only to show up here and fuck everything up. I dredged you from the sea, only to watch you die in my arms. I saved your children from the hands of the Gerudo pirate thieves, but only to learn the melody to bring me further along in my own goals. Everything I did was for selfish, if justified, reasons and I know that what you've witnessed here today only proves that I'm a cheater and a scumbag.

"I don't expect your forgiveness or a heavenly blessing. If anything, I deserve eternal damnation for what I've done to you. I am so sorry to do this. I have no choice. Your wife has seven children, and they need a father. Japas lost the only other creature who understood and loved him as he was, and he needs acceptance. He needs someone to be there for him when no one else is willing.

"Truth is, the first time I looked at Japas, I felt everything you felt. I felt adoration and love for this man, and this is coming from a man whose heart has been infinitely hardened by war and anguish. I never thought I'd feel this way in my life, and yet I looked at Japas and instantly my stone-cold soul set itself ablaze. I knew how much you loved him, and those memories burst forth. I fell in love with him instantaneously.

"At first I couldn't figure out what the emotions were. I'd never fallen so hard in love before. I was confused and a little frightened. Then as I slowly figured out what I was feeling, it became clearer and clearer to me. I am so sorry.

" I have taken everything from you, and I can't even give you the decency of a proper grave marker. No one here can read the plaque I carved. I don't write in Terminean. It just looks like faceless symbols to them.

"So, to conclude, I don't expect forgiveness from you. I've done disgusting things to you, things that would make a hardened assassin weep. I'm going to be a father to your children, and a lover to your bassist, a husband to your wife, and a guitarist to your band. I'm going to become Mikau, because there are so many who need me, who need _you_- to come back. I'm so sorry, Mikau. I've done all I can."

Link's monologue complete, he looked back towards the ocean, and called out, "How much of _that _were you listening in on, Japas?"

Sheepishly, Japas peeked out from behind the wooden stake that was part of the scaffolding that held the Scientist's lab above the water. He smiled softly and trotted back over. "All of it, brah… didn't know you felt like that."

"It's true, Japas. I feel terrible about this, but… as horrible as I feel, as horrifying as this is for me, I still feel an insatiable need to fill the void I, myself, created. And the truth is, I fell so hard for you, I don't think I could ever stop falling. I know I'm not the Mikau that once was, but… will you accept me as a substitute of lesser value?"

Japas smiled and kissed Link on the mouth. "Brah, you were there for me when no one else was. You brought me here and told me the truth when I was like, the last person who deserved it. You knew how tight me and Mikau were, brah. You decided of your own free will to keep on chillin' with a guy you barely knew. So yeah, we ballin', brah."

Link wiped the tears away that threatened to fall down his sharp blue cheeks. "Thank you, Japas. Hearing that makes me… happy."

"Now let's really get outta here, Lulu's gonna have a cow when she realizes we've been gone this whole time."

"Right you are, Japas. Let's go."

As Link and Japas took off into the deep blue ocean, Link was almost given pause when he swore he could hear a faint whisper on the ocean breeze.

_All is forgiven, Link. Take good care of my children and of Japas. I know you'll do right by them. _

_Thank you, and goodbye. _

END


End file.
